1831 BEECHEY VOYAGE TO PACIFIC & BEERINGS STRAIT POLAR ALASKA MAPS & PLTS @
Item History & Price
I have here for a book entitled NARRATIVE OF A VOYAGE TO THE PACIFIC AND BEERING'S STRAIT, TO CO-OPERATE WITH THE POLAR EXPEDITIONS: PERFORMED IN HIS MAJESTY'S SHIP BLOSSOM, UNDER THE COMMAND OF CAPTAIN F.W. BEECHEY, IN THE YEARS 1825, 26, 27, 28. This new edition was published in 1831 by HENRY COLBURN AND RICHARD BENTLEY, London. Volume I only for sale here and it covers the expedition from England to Chili, to Easter Island, to Pitcairn Island, meeting with the survivors... of the Mutiny on the Bounty, to Otaheite, Gambier Islands, Captain Bligh's Lagoon Island, Sandwich Islands, Kamschatka, Chamisso Island, Kotzebue Sound, Cape Franklin, Aleutian Islands, until it arrives at San Francisco.It has large fold out map of North America (at the front of this book) and a fold out map of NORTH WEST COAST of AMERICA being Alaska - (both have a small tear), along with 13 plates and a chart of Gambier Islands - all present.In 1825, Beechey was appointed to command HMS Blossom. His task was to explore the Bering Strait in concert with Franklin and Parry operating from the east. In the summer of 1826, he passed the strait and a barge from his ship reached 71°23'31" N., and 156°21'30" W. near Point Barrow which he named, a point only 146 miles west of that reached by Franklin's expedition from the Mackenzie River. The whole voyage lasted more than three years and in the course of it Beechey discovered several islands in the Pacific, and an excellent harbour near Cape Prince of Wales.[3]In 1826, he visited a Catholic mission in California. He wrote, "...with whips, canes and goads or sharp, pointed sticks to preserve silence and maintain order, and what seemed more difficult than either, to keep the congregation in their kneeling posture. The goads would reach a long way and inflict a sharp puncture without making any noise. The end of the church was occupied by a guard of soldiers under arms with fixed bayonets."In July 1826, he named the three islands in the Bering Strait. Two were the Diomede Islands that Vitus Bering had named in 1728: "Ratmanoff Island" (Big Diomede) and "Krusenstern Island" (Little Diomede). Beechey called the uninhabited third islet "Fairway Rock", which is still its contemporary name. One of his crew, Petty Officer John Bechervaise, gave a detailed account of the voyage in his Thirty-six Years of a Seafaring Life by an Old Quartermaster, published privately in 1839.[4] (The crewmember's namesake and great-great-grandson John Béchervaise (1910–1998) was a noted explorer of Antarctica.) In 1831, there appeared Beechey's Narrative of a Voyage to the Pacific and Bering's Strait to Co-operate with the Polar Expeditions, 1825-1828.Half bound in leather over marbled boards. Spine is worn and there is a small section missing from the top section. Corners of the boards are worn. Front board is pulling and front internal hinge is cracked. Foxing to the title page and the plates. This book is in good condition, it remains tightly bound with no loose or missing pages 472 pages 22cm x 14 cm.We have over 1000 items in our Ebay shop on a wide range of subjects, so please feel free to have a browse and see if anything else takes your fancy.Postage will be by Air Mail outside of UK. If you buy more than one item then the postage cost falls for the second and further items as I will put them into one parcel - so you save money. We wrap and post the parcels on Monday and Tuesday - therefore if you pay before midday on Tuesday we will get it in the postal sacks on Tuesday night, and if it is after that time then it will go into the postal service on the following Monday.
